Professional wrestlers come off like superheroes, accomplishing unbelievable feats in epic stories of good vs. evil.
This expectation continues when wrestlers are able to continue their careers for decades, like Randy Orton, Dwayne Johnson, or Dory Funk Jr., who wrestled his final match this year at 83 years old.
Unfortunately, all careers must come to an end. And according to some reports, a Phenomenal career could potentially reach its finale this year.
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According to a report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, multiple people in the professional wrestling business are “of the belief that AJ Styles’ WWE contract expires late this year or early next year.”
Sapp also noted that The Phenomenal One is “healthy, off television, and spending time with his family,” and that no one has confirmed whether WWE wants to sign Styles to a new contract, per Doric Sam of BleacherReport.
This isn’t the first time retirement talk has surrounded Styles. In fact, he brought the topic up himself in an interview with The Ringer.
“I’m getting close to the end. I want to have that story and match to go with it before I leave the WWE,” Styles said. “I’m done. I’m going to retire.
“I’m getting to that point where I am worried about embarrassing myself. My brain says, ‘We can do this.’ My body is like, ‘You’re stupid. We cannot do this. We’re hurting every day when we roll out of bed.’ At some point, this has to come to an end.”
If his career had to come to an end, this wouldn’t be a bad time. The last time Styles wrestled on television was at Clash of the Castle 2024 against Cody Rhodes in an “I Quit” Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship, which he lost.
That being said, it’s likely that Styles will stick around for next year given that it’s John Cena’s Farewell Tour and he’s one of Cena’s greatest opponents.
Styles is one of the most technically proficient and beloved professional wrestlers in the world, with impressive tenures across multiple companies, including Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and WWE.
Styles began to come to prominence at Ring of Honor (ROH) before heading to TNA and becoming one of its most iconic figures.
Styles would go on to spend time on the independent circuit before heading to NJPW to join the Bullet Club, one of the most popular wrestling factions in the world.
In 2016, Styles shocked the world by joining WWE at the Royal Rumble. Within the year, he would win the WWE World Championship. He has been with WWE ever since.
In his near 23-year long career, Styles has won the WWE Championship twice, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice, and the ROH Pure Championship once.
Styles was ranked No. 1 in the PWI 500 in 2010.
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